


Stages

by janetcarter



Category: Earth 2 (TV 1994)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Parent-Child Relationship, Pre-Canon, Terminal Illnesses, The Syndrome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:00:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25845451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/janetcarter/pseuds/janetcarter
Summary: If it weren't for Yale, Devon would come home to an empty unit. He's there when Uly isn't, when Devon had permission to be a person who's hurting rather than a mother who's strong.
Relationships: Devon Adair & Ulysses Adair, Devon Adair & Yale
Comments: 4
Kudos: 4
Collections: Hurt/Comfort Bingo - Round 11





	Stages

**Author's Note:**

> For the Hurt/Comfort Bingo prompt "Hospital Stay."

Uly didn't even know what their unit looked like, Devon realized on his third birthday. Of course she'd known it all along. She'd waited, waited days and weeks and months to finally take her son home. 

  
She didn't know when she'd stopped waiting, when she got used to the fact this was their normal, but it all truly hit her when the kids in the ward were throwing him a party. It became clear, amidst the weak cheers and beeping machinery, how his home was the very place he should've left: a hospital bed. 

  
It was too dangerous for him to go anywhere else. She'd begged Vasquez in the beginning: _Just let me take him to the park on Level 12. Just let me take him to the Dome and show him the stars._

  
_Just let me hold my son._

  
But she knew, no matter how much she argued, he'd never let her. And she was glad for it. Someone had to say no before she found the strength to do it herself. It just… it'd made her feel less powerless to try, like she wasn't letting her son succumb to a fraction of a lifespan he could count on both hands. Like she was fighting to give him more, even though more would also mean less.

  
Denial. Anger. Bargaining. Uly was hardly halfway through his short life and she was more than halfway through the Stages of Grief. 

  
Depression was where she'd landed herself as of late, but she'd be damned if she ever, ever accepted it. She was finally making progress on Eden Project, and it almost made it easier to walk out of the ward without breaking down. It was a sliver of hope, one she clenched her fist around so tightly she bled, and she would keep bleeding until her son was safe. 

  
So she left at the end of every day, kissing Uly's forehead where the gear allowed it, booping his intubated nose, and telling him she'd be back first thing in the morning. 

  
But hope didn't mean it was easy. No, she collapsed on the couch as soon as the door to her unit shut behind her. As usual, Yale had been waiting. 

  
"Devon," he stated, turning on the light. He was holding his breath. "How is Ulysses?" 

  
She wiped her eyes. "No worse, thank God." 

  
He finally exhaled and sat beside her on the couch. "And you?" 

  
"Me? I… I need to get to work." She went to stand, but he stopped her.

  
"Devon, please," he said. "Take a moment to yourself." 

  
Sometimes she thought it'd be easier if she did come home alone, because then she'd be able to crumble without piecing herself back together. It was easier, sometimes, to stay in the dark. It was also easier to throw herself into work at her own detriment, because what did her health matter when Uly's was deteriorating?

  
But then she remembered the fate of all other Yale programs, and she bit her tongue. "Yale… I just want him to come home." On the word, her sobs started up again. 

  
Yale took her into his arms as he had when she was just a little girl; a little girl who was free to visit anywhere on the station she pleased. A little girl whose father had built this one and the others, a little girl who had even seen earth once upon a time. 

  
A little girl who wasn't stuck in a hospital bed, every inhale a dying breath.

  
She cried into Yale's shoulder as he held her close. And she tried not to resent that she might never rock Uly the same way without the chains of tubes and wires. 

  
Because if she didn't find a solution before he turned eight, there would be no second chance.


End file.
